@FuturePics Photo Tip of the Week - Stay stable to beat blur

byGraham
on ‎03-31-201202:40 PM - last edited on ‎04-27-201209:15 AM by JS

Capturing a great moment can be ruined by blur from a shaky camera. Courtesy of @FuturePics, here's a quick way to stop the shakes!

Blur is the bane of great photographs; it’s the one of those things that you can’t clean up easily (if at all) in an image editor, and it seems to pop up in whole lot of different situations. Blur happens for a few reasons, which get quite technical. Instead of getting into the nitty gritty, we’re going to look at one way to stop blur today: getting stable while on the go.

If you’re rockin’ a point and shoot camera you probably aren’t toting a tripod with you, so how can you be more stable? Think about how you’re probably using your camera or smartphone right now: with an LCD on the back, you’re probably holding the device out at arm’s length, looking at the screen.

The problem is, no matter how often you’re doing curls in the squat rack at the gym, your arms are inherently going to move ever so slightly. Even your breathing will shift the camera–that means that if it’s not bright enough, or if you’re zoomed in, that shake will be magnified, giving you a sad, soft, blurry image.

Today’s tip: it’s all about where you put your elbows. There are two ways to deal with them that will make your shots solid, beating blur for good.

1) Find a place to put your elbows down! If there’s a ledge or flat surface you can put your elbows down on, you’re creating a stable base, and reducing camera shake.

2) Be your own tripod! Spread your feet shoulder width apart, and tuck your elbows into your ribs and form a stable base out of your own body. If your camera has a viewfinder, use that instead of using the LCD; the third point of contact makes your frame even more stable. If you don’t have a viewfinder, bring the camera as close to your face as possible.

The darker it is or the more zoomed in you are, the more stable you need to be. Keep that in mind when you’re trying to frame and take your shot: get stable, and you can say goodbye to (some causes of) blur!